World Routes

[Lateralthinking1]

I see that our friend Joe of the Dissertation highlights this on R3OK:

"An early use of the term world music was by Ronald Stevenson. His book Western Music - an introduction (Kahn & Averill, 1971) contains a chapter entitled Towards World Music.

A rather different meaning than that "invented" in the Empress of Russia in the mid-1980s, but which may be of interest, nonetheless.

The ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown is credited with "inventing" the term.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...1j11brown.html"

But I'm becoming intrigued by Jean Jenkins GT for surely before any labelling there was a greater truth brought to us by the collectors and the archivists. Were they dusty or more like explorers? I almost think of "Born Free" when I see that photo of her.

In fact, am I the only one to think that there are some similarities between Jean and Lucy?

I would quite like to be an ethnomusicologist when I grow up but has it all been said and done?

[Globaltruth]

JJ

I see that our friend Joe of the Dissertation highlights this on R3OK:

"An early use of the term world music was by Ronald Stevenson. His book Western Music - an introduction (Kahn & Averill, 1971) contains a chapter entitled Towards World Music.

A rather different meaning than that "invented" in the Empress of Russia in the mid-1980s, but which may be of interest, nonetheless.

The ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown is credited with "inventing" the term.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...1j11brown.html"

But I'm becoming intrigued by Jean Jenkins GT for surely before any labelling there was a greater truth brought to us by the collectors and the archivists. Were they dusty or more like explorers? I almost think of "Born Free" when I see that photo of her.

In fact, am I the only one to think that there are some similarities between Jean and Lucy?

I would quite like to be an ethnomusicologist when I grow up but has it all been said and done?

Maybe we could maintain the noble tradition of the amateur and pursue ethnomusicology in that way?

I've had a further look at the Museum of Scotland site, but there isn't any more info there. However you may be interested to know that
her recording of "Abu Zeluf", sung by Dunya Yunis, a girl from a northern mountain village in Lebanon, is sampled for two tracks on My Life In the Bush of Ghosts.

I may take the bus to Ripley and see if I can shed any new lights on the Guisers, although as you say, it has been done before.



But it is like a journey to another land.

[Lateralthinking1]

I stayed in that hotel. Business trip. Expenses paid. I opted to smuggle in Kentucky Fried Chicken. That says a lot. I can hardly stomach it.

[handsomefortune]

womex high points were the iranian drummer, the irish folk, and nasrat (for me).

btw thanks for the jean jenkins link - looks like a very promising (and timely) programme.

[johncorrigan]

Just in case you're wondering at what time WR is on this Sunday, well it's 10 o'clock - in the evening that is - I think it's cos it's the thrid Sunday of Advent and it immediately follows a full moon. Must get my rules for WR sorted out.

Anyway, MAK's in Canada and if it's anything like some of the Cape Breton etc music she's played on Wo3 since she came back from there, it promises to be a fine show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01806p1

[handsomefortune]

thank you!

[johncorrigan]

Sunday evening's hour of Quebecois was really, really enjoyable - started off with some music that sounded positively Sardinian or Corsican at times - the part about the Hurdy Gurdy with Daniel Thonon explaining the instrument and letting us hear the various elements was fascinating to my ears and the rest just sounded joyous. The festival sounded like a complete gas and Mary Ann was an excellent guide. Well worth a listen, but even if you don't have the time don't miss the hurdy gurdy. It'll be about 20 minutes in I reckon. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01806p1

She's in Cape Breton next week, quote continuity announcer "at the later time of 10.20."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0185bdp

[handsomefortune]

Quebecois was really, really enjoyable

twas...heartily so.

so good to hear humans simply enjoying singing together, and raising everyones' spirits in the process.

it's always positive to be reminded of a central source of inspiration in doing music together, as a relief from daily toil....music as a communal copeing strategy, totally separate from today's market forces. it's also really easy to take for granted, neglect (over)familiar indigenous forms that seem to have less charisma, in comparison to quebec samples broadcast.

also plenty of 'tanc' incidences .... though the hurdy gurdy intro was definitely uniquely suprising and had some really unusual singing techniques...i could have done with a whole programme, after the tantalising taster on 'world routes'.

that aside, uk folk traditions obviously sprang to mind alot; in particular, related stylistic traites ... of mining communities, and echoes of our own olde culture, based around the same industry..... but in this instance, fascinating to hear the same industrial connections but expressed via quebecois. mineing, in particular, seems usually to be accompanied by definitive musical styles which might just make an interesting reason to travel the world's mines, and trace musical heritage linked to past employees?

some music played reminded me of what are presumably the stylistic origins of US/canadian protest singers, that became famous in the 60s.

but towards the end of the prog, most of all, i thought of french 'punks' 'les negres vertes' briefly famous in the 90s. in particular, their singing style and use of call and response. i'd always wondered where their stylistic inspiration came from, (though their music is mixed with other influences too).

there must be french folk traditions that i'm totally unaware of, that travelled with french migrants to canada, the style then morphing into one unique to certain industrial regions of canada? if this is the case, there's an abundance of music that i've never ever heard of, which is a promising note to end a programme on, if anything! as a progression, some french folk wouldn't go amiss ..?

* thanks for time check, will definitely try to remember 10.20 pm next sunday

[Lateralthinking1]

Thanks to JC and handsomefortune for this recommendation. It hit several spots - all good.

I agree the Corsican/Sardinian comparison. One thinks too of Louisiana. I would even dare to offer that there is a bit of Bulgar in the dissonance. That is probably coincidence.

I thought of the X Seamens Institute. There is much history to call and response apparently but it is very much in the sea shanties. We aren't a million miles from the stories of Arcadian Driftwood.

Cape Breton beckons in the schedules. I doubt it will be as synthy as, say, Brittany. And just ahead of it I can see Genticorum preparing for the Strathclyde Suite.

[johncorrigan]

Cape Breton beckons in the schedules. I doubt it will be as synthy as, say, Brittany. And just ahead of it I can see Genticorum preparing for the Strathclyde Suite.

Certainly not so synthy, Lat - at the start I could have been listening to Radio Scotland - there they are in Iona Village down from Glen Barra in the middle of Cape Breton. The programme sounds so Scottish and yet different - I loved the use of the piano with the fiddle with Crissy Crowley ....and the Gaelic singing which sounded like waulking songs yet with men singing, and it sounded like the Sea....and you can hear the native Canadians music influencing the Scots...and following the Native canadians there was the French - really interesting communities....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0185bdp

Mary Ann's a fine guide - really enjoyable pair of programmes. Glad I managed to catch up with them.

[Lateralthinking1]

Yes, I enjoyed this programme, although I liked the Quebec one more. Interesting stories including explanation of the distinctive piano accompaniment. Quite a bit about the singing tradition. Got me thinking that the celtic deedle-deedle-dum - also found in the Cheftains and others - is a little like scat singing in jazz but is there a name for it? If so, I would like to know what it is called.

That Mary Jane Lamond has a particularly nice voice and she is on Spot. The communal aspects of the programme reminded me how odd the English can be in attitudes to singing. They find it embarrassing. I have never even heard the famous singer next door to me sing, not that I have any complaints about him at all. It might be better that he doesn't. Still, I used to like to sing and found myself singing "Main Travelled Roads" yesterday evening. I hope no one heard me. When I looked at the lyric, it confirmed everything I thought about Jackie Leven's writing. Wonderful stuff - http://www.6lyrics.com/main_travelle...l_by_doll.aspx.

Apparently John Peel hated Doll by Doll. He was wrong on that one. But here's a rather strange clip - awkward, mimed, truncated - from 1981 which only hinted at the brilliance that was to come. Style can be a problem in youth. Fortunately substance flourishes with naturalness and how it did so in Jackie's middle age - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbOq2...eature=related.

While I meander - and apologies - I could flag up here that I am Spotifying a list of 100 listenable cds from 2011. More soon. But going back to Cape Breton, it introduced me to some music I hadn't heard. I liked the spirit. What wonderful scenery and architecture too. I'd like to go there I think. And, yes, a very good job done by MAK on both programmes. Very well worth it.

[johncorrigan]

Thanks for that Lat - I think that musically the Quebequois programme was terrific, but I found the Cape Breton one more interesting - all those cross cultural influences happening in a fairly small place and yet each retaining this firm identity. I really fancied a visit there - they may be the best World Routes I've heard this year outside of the Music Planet series.

On the subject of songs and familiarity and music you love that you think that no-one knows as well as you I was rather interested in Laura Barton's article in the Guardian on Friday. I had been listening to Christmas and the Beads of Sweat on a loop since Gideon played Christmas in my Soul on Thursday evening. I feel I know and love this album so well and wonder if anyone feels the same way about it - I want to hear it being played from someone else's car or see it lying on a passenger seat - never happens - usually Michael Bubble.. Laura mentioned an album of Southern Soul that I really love and a track by William Bell which also gets to me, perhaps the way that JL does for you, Lat.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/dec/22/how-music-can-reach-out-and-touch-us

[Oilrig]

I agree the Corsican/Sardinian comparison. One thinks too of Louisiana. I would even dare to offer that there is a bit of Bulgar in the dissonance. That is probably coincidence.

The Serre L'Ecoute trio are Quebecois through and through, but Robert Bouthillier and his daughter Gabrielle have deliberately taken in other influences including French/Western European styles that he would have encountered through his many years working as a musicologist in France as well as Canada, but also from Eastern Europe - so your ears aren't misleading you there. Anything that is exciting vocally I think they take into their own singing. They were the personal highlight of the music for me in Quebec, but anyone who knows my tastes in a cappella vocals wouldn't be surprised there. It was quite an experience watching the three of them singing as one. As they said themselves, to have any one of them replaced in the trio would make them no longer Serre L'Ecoute.

Cape Breton was a harder story to tell comprehensively I think, and Roger Short did a beautiful job in pulling together the various threads of the island's culture. It was the first time I'd been able to visit the island outwith Celtic Colours, and I was glad we avoided the festival in this case, as it meant we were able to head straight for the communities themselves, all with the help and knowledge of our CBC colleague, Wendy Bergfeldt - one sassy lady!

Mary Jane Lamond also gave me an opportunity off-mic to visit with a couple of the older guys from that native Gaelic-speaking community that is slowly passing on - a real privilege to spend time with such gentlemen, and quite possibly a last visit in some cases. I ended up feeling a little confused - I had come to CBI prepared to tell the story of the passing of the diaspora, and although this is certainly true of the older native speakers, there is now also a young generation growing up who are acquiring the language as their own - and also the culture, history and background - through innovative projects like 'Bun is Barr', where younger learners are basically apprenticed to one of these elders, who then shares not just vocab and syntax, but idiom, context, recollection, genealogy, history - the whole package that would have been passed on naturally in an older and more contained community. It's an interesting time.

[Lateralthinking1]

Well, yes, thank you. I think what I learnt from it was that it takes several things for the language and culture to be taken forward successfully. First, it needs the commitment and enthusiasm of remarkable people and we saw that vividly in the film about your family. I am guessing that they are in a similar position to that of Kenna in the 1970s and 1980s. It is a grassroots movement that is acquiring admirable structure. I wonder though how much support they are being given by their national and regional Governments. That seems to be the next step upwards because it can help with schooling and broader media access.

It is good to hear that there is likely to be a third programme in 2012. For all our interests in instrumentation and arrangements, I am struck by how often we come back on this forum to the voice. It is also often a capella performances, or other performances with a strong emphasis on singing, that are the truly memorable ones at festivals. That is at least partially because of the way they accentuate a sense of community. I don't think I was alone in going out of my way to see Lo Cor de La Plana twice when they were at Womad for being a part of that experience was an absolute joy.

[Globaltruth]

2 bands from Bamako and Segou

Dr. Lucy popping over to Bamako in Mali to record a couple of bands was always going to be a rewarding listen.

Bamako is the capital of Mali, people have been living there for about 150,000 years, currently one of the fastest growing cities in the world in terms of population.

As usual, we take for granted the terrific, high-quality job done by the sound engineers on location - in fact there are no name credits, so maybe it's just Dr. L. with her reel-to-reel tape recorder.

The first band featured were Les Freres Dambele.

I like the idea of the 'Apollo' bands (named after the Apollo space mission) such as this, performing for women not only to party to at weddings but also to offer support & repect to Malian women.

Here's Bebe Coulibay the lead singer of les Freres Dambele



And then onto Super Biton who had made a special trip to Bamako from Segou for this show, recorded live at the Institut Francais..






Super Biton de Segou have an altogether different sound - liquid guitar, and an agile brass section, all built on the traditional rhythms of Segou.

One album by Super Biton de Segou on Spotify

http://open.spotify.com/album/3zid3pgo5igPANWT2iKp0u
featured on this promising looking album too..
Afrique Independante

It's amazing that they have never toured England despite having been in existence for 50 years; the first band ever to use an electric guitar in Central Mali at that point.

I did find this discography of their work on the Kunkan label
http://www.radioafrica.com.au/Discographies/Kunkan.html
- basically a list (Lat will like it)


The programme is definitely Recommended, too short as usual - just time for a quick canter through the background/history of the groups and a few toons.

thanks to Dr. L & the WR team.